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The Battle of Edgehill (or Edge
Hill) was the first pitched
battle of the First English
Civil War. It was fought near Edge
Hill and Kineton in southern
Warwickshire on Sunday 23 October, 1642. The inconclusive
result of the battle prevented either faction gaining a quick
victory in the war, which eventually lasted four years.

Charles
then attempted to seize the port of Kingston-upon-Hull where arms and equipment previously collected for
the Bishops' Wars had been
gathered.In the Siege of Hull, the Parliamentarian garrison defied the King's
authority and drove his forces away from the city.In early
August the King moved south, to Lincoln and Leicester, where he secured the contents of the local
armouries.On 22 August, he took the decisive step by
raising the royal standard in Nottingham, effectively declaring war on Parliament.The
Midlands were generally Parliamentarian in sympathy, and few
rallied to the king there, so having again secured the arms and
equipment of the local trained bands, Charles moved to Chester and
subsequently to Shrewsbury, where large numbers of recruits from Wales and the
Welsh border were expected to join
him. (By now, there was conflict in almost every part of
England, as local commanders attempted to seize the main cities,
ports and castles for both factions).

Having learned of the King's actions in Nottingham, Parliament
dispatched its own army northward under the Earl of Essex, to
confront the King. Essex marched first to Northampton, where he mustered almost 20,000 men.Learning
of the King's move westwards, Essex then marched north-westwards
towards Worcester.On 23 September, in the first clash between
the main Royalist and Parliamentarian armies, Royalist cavalry
under Prince Rupert of the
Rhine routed the cavalry of Essex's vanguard at the Battle of
Powick Bridge. Nevertheless, lacking infantry, the
Royalists abandoned Worcester.

Prelude

By early October, the King's army was almost complete at
Shrewsbury. He held a council of war,
at which two courses of action were considered. The first was to
attack Essex's army at Worcester, which had the drawback that the
close country around the city would put the superior Royalist
cavalry at a disadvantage. The second course, which was adopted,
was to advance towards London. The intention was not to avoid
battle with Essex, but to force one at an advantage. In the
Earl of Clarendon's words: "it
was considered more counsellable to march towards London, it being
morally sure that Essex would put himself in their way".
Accordingly, the army left Shrewsbury on 12 October, gaining two
days' start on the enemy, and moved south-east. Essex followed, but
neither army had much information on the location of their
enemy.

By 22
October, the Royalist army was quartered in the villages around
Edgecote, and was threatening the Parliamentarian garrison
at Banbury, who sent messengers pleading for help to the
garrison at Warwick
Castle. Essex, who had just reached there, ordered
an immediate march to Kineton to bring relief to Banbury, even
though his army had straggled and not all his troops were present.
That evening, there were clashes between outposts and
quartermasters' parties in Kineton and the villages nearby, and the
Royalists had their first inkling that Essex's army was close by.
The King issued orders for his army to muster for battle on top of
the escarpment of Edgehill the following
day.

Essex originally intended marching straight to the relief of
Banbury, but at about eight o'clock on the morning of 23 October,
his outposts reported that the Cavaliers were massed on Edgehill,
four and a half miles from Kineton. Essex deployed his army about
halfway between Kineton and the Royalist army, where there was some
protection from hedge.

The opposing forces

There were some significant differences between the opposing
armies, which were to be important to the course of the battle and
its outcome. Although both were composed of very raw
soldiers, they both had several experienced officers who had
previously fought in the Dutch or Swedish armies during the Thirty Years' War. (Several of
these had been recruited to lead English forces which were intended
to be sent to Ireland following the Irish Rebellion of 1641. Both King
and Parliament had bid highly for the services of these
officers.)

The Royalist cavalry was superior to Parliament's cavalry at this
stage of the war. Oliver Cromwell,
who arrived too late in the day to take part in the battle, later
wrote disparagingly to John Hampden,
"Your troopers are most of them old decayed servingmen and
tapsters; and their [the Royalists] troopers are
gentlemen's sons, younger sons and persons of quality...". Not
only were the Parliamentarian cavalry not so naturally accustomed
to mounted action, but they were drilled in the Dutch tactic of
firing pistols and carbines from the saddle, whereas under Rupert,
the Royalist cavalry would charge sword in hand, relying on shock
and weight.

By contrast, the Parliamentarian foot soldiers were better
equipped. The Royalist pikemen were said to lack armour, and the
musketeers lacked swords, making the Royalist infantry more
vulnerable in hand-to-hand combat. Several hundred lacked any sort
of weapon apart from clubs or improvised polearms.

The Royalist and Parliamentarian artillery trains were roughly
equally matched. Although Essex had more guns overall, many of them
had lagged behind on the march.

Deployments

Royalists

The Royalist right wing of cavalry and dragoons was led by Prince
Rupert, with Sir John
Byron in support. The King's own Lifeguard of Horse insisted on
joining Rupert's front line.

The Centre consisted of five "tertias" of infantry. There was a
last-minute change of command when the Colonel-General, Lord Lindsey, was
overruled when he wished to deploy them in "Dutch" formation,
simple phalanxes eight ranks deep. Affronted, he resigned his
command and took his place at the head of his own regiment of foot.
Instead, he was replaced by Lord Forth, who drew
up the infantry in "Swedish" formation, which was potentially more
effective but also more difficult to control, particularly with
inexperienced soldiers. The centre was led in battle by Sergeant
Major General Jacob
Astley.

Parliamentarians

The Parliamentarian left wing consisted of a loosely organised
cavalry brigade of twenty unregimented troops under Sir James
Ramsay, supported by musketeers and several cannon. They were
deployed behind a hedge.

Their centre consisted of three brigades of infantry. Because some
of Essex's infantry were not present, Essex reinforced the weaker
right flank of his infantry by moving two cavalry regiments under
Sir William Balfour and Sir Philip
Stapleton from his right wing to behind the infantry. This was
to be important in the coming battle.

This left only a single regiment of cavalry under Lord Feilding, supported
by musketeers and dragoons, on the right wing, posted on some
rising ground.

The battle

As Essex showed no signs of wishing to attack, the Royalists began
to descend the slope of Edgehill some time after midday. Even when
they had completed this manoeuvre at about two o'clock, the battle
did not begin, until the sight of the King with his large entourage
riding from regiment to regiment to encourage his soldiers,
apparently goaded the Parliamentarians into opening fire.

The King's party withdrew out of range and an artillery duel took
place. The Royalist guns were comparatively ineffective as most of
them were deployed some way up the slope, and from this height most
of their shot plunged harmlessly into the earth. While the
bombardment continued however, the Royalist dragoons advanced on
each flank and drove back the Parliamentarian dragoons and
musketeers covering their wings of horse.

At last, Rupert gave the order to attack. As his charge gathered
momentum, a troop of Parliamentarian horse under Faithfull
Fortescue abruptly defected. The rest of Ramsay's brigade
apparently gave an ineffectual volley of pistol fire from the
saddle before turning to flee. Rupert's and Byron's troopers
rapidly overran the enemy guns and musketeers on this flank and
galloped jubilantly in pursuit of Ramsay's men.

Wilmot charged about the same time on the other flank. Feilding's
outnumbered regiment quickly gave way, and Wilmot and Digby also
chased them to Kineton where the Royalist horse fell out to loot
the Parliamentarian baggage.

The Royalist infantry also advanced in the centre. Many of the
Parliamentarian foot had already run away as their cavalry
disappeared, and others fled as the infantry came to close
quarters. The brigades of Sir Thomas Ballard and Sir John Meldrum nevertheless stood their ground.
Without any Royalist cavalry to oppose them, the Parliamentarian
horse under Stapleton and Balfour now charged the Royalist infantry
and put many units to flight.

The King had left himself without any proper reserve. As his centre
gave way, he ordered one of his officers to conduct his sons
Charles and James to safety while he himself tried
to rally his infantry. Some of Balfour's men charged so far into
the Royalist position that they menaced the princes' escort and
briefly overran the Royalist artillery before withdrawing. In the
front ranks, Lord Lindsey was killed, and Sir Edmund Verney died defending the
Royal Standard, which was captured by Parliamentarian Ensign Arthur Young, and recaptured by captain
John Smith (who was knighted by a grateful Charles).

By this time, some of the Royalist horse had rallied and were
returning from Kineton. Some of them recaptured the Royal Standard
as it was being taken to the rear as a trophy. As they reformed on
the flanks, and as evening drew on, Essex ordered his men to break
off the battle.

Outcome

Both sides held their positions during the night, which was very
cold. This has been suggested as the reason why many of the wounded
survived, as the cold allowed many wounds to congeal, saving the
wounded from bleeding to death or succumbing to infection.

The following day, both armies formed up again, but neither was
willing to resume the battle. Charles sent a Herald to Essex with a message of pardon if he would
agree to the King's terms, but the messenger was roughly handled and forced to return
without delivering his message. Although Essex had been reinforced
by some of his units which had lagged behind on the march, he
withdrew on 25 October to Warwick Castle, abandoning seven guns on
the battlefield.

This allowed the King to move directly on London. Rupert urged this
course, and was prepared to undertake it with his cavalry alone.
With Essex's army still intact, Charles chose to move more
deliberately, with the whole army. After capturing Banbury on 27 October,
Charles advanced via Oxford, Aylesbury and Reading. Essex meanwhile had moved directly to
London. Reinforced with the London Trained Bands and
many citizen volunteers, he would prove to be too strong for the
King to contemplate another battle when the Royalists advanced to
Turnham
Green. The King withdrew to Oxford, which he made
his capital for the rest of the war. With both sides almost evenly
matched, it would drag on ruinously for years.

It is generally acknowledged that the Royalist cavalry's lack of
discipline prevented a clear Royalist victory at Edgehill. Not for
the last time in the war, they would gallop after fleeing enemy and
stop to plunder, rather than rally to attack the enemy infantry.
Byron's and Digby's men in particular, were not involved in the
first clashes and should have been kept in hand rather than allowed
to gallop off the battlefield.

Maps

The site of the battle now lies within a Ministry of Defence
installation covering a large area so that it can not be visited on
foot.

. This is the site of the Parliamentarian army's centre about
which much of the fighting was done.

. (Zoom out one step). The narrow wood, which has probably
grown since the battle, marks the scarp of Edge Hill at the top of
which the king's army formed up before the battle. Towards the
north-west, it overlooks the lower slope and the plain on which the
battle was fought. Parliament's army was formed up on the site of
the later military depot with its left wing on the road.